45°
The board has elected to enter into a nonbinding agreement with the State of Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management for the Regional Performance Incentive Program of the Nutmeg Network.
The Board of Selectmen -- which was missing Selectman Kevin Kiley due to a sickness at its Wednesday meeting -- approved the resolution. But it will still require approval by the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting before the grant application can be made.
Formerly known as the Connecticut Education Network, the Nutmeg Network is essentially a high-speed, reliable, low-cost Internet service provider for educational purposes throughout the state.
Library Systems Administrator Jim Swift presented the board with information on the grant application. He said the town would receive all the benefits as long as the deadlines were met.
The grant would award $42,400 to the town, which would cover network connection cost, hardware and the first year of maintenance, Swift said.
If all goes according to plan, Fairfield’s Branch Library could expect to drop its old connection, log onto the new network and see the town save a yearly $38,000 by 2017, according to Swift.
Currently, the Branch Library connects to the internet via the Board of Education’s server, which has proven unreliable. The library loses connectivity when the Board of Education's network maintenance is performed in the early afternoon, but the branch does not close until later in the evening.
With the new connection, the branch would no longer have to use the Board of Education building as a proxy and instead would use Fairfield University’s connection.
When asked whether the new network has an “Achilles heal” by Selectman Sheila Marmion, Swift said there has been only one noteworthy incident in recent memory, when a virus outbreak occurred in 2007. But the problem was isolated and fixed “rather quickly,” he said.
“Unless something to Fairfield University, I don’t see [downtimes] happening on the new network,” Swift said.
The town has set aside $3,000 in the budget and is looking for approval this spring to aid the grant.
The Board of Selectman agreed it was a good investment to “spend $3,000 to save $38,000.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fairfield and receive free news updates.
